I. Sokolov-Mikitov “Autumn”
The chirping swallows have long since flown south, and even earlier, as if on cue, the swift swifts disappeared. On autumn days, the children heard the passing cranes crowing in the sky as they said goodbye to their dear homeland. They looked after them for a long time with some special feeling, as if the cranes were taking summer with them. Quietly talking, the geese flew to the warm south...
People are preparing for a cold winter. The rye and wheat were mowed long ago. We prepared feed for the livestock. The last apples are being picked from the orchards. They dug up potatoes, beets, and carrots and put them away for the winter.
The animals are also preparing for winter. The nimble squirrel accumulated nuts in the hollow and dried selected mushrooms. Little voles brought grains into the holes and prepared fragrant soft hay. In late autumn, a hardworking hedgehog builds its winter lair. He dragged a whole heap of dry leaves under an old stump. You will sleep peacefully all winter under a warm blanket.
The autumn sun warms less and less often, more and more sparingly. Soon, soon the first frosts will begin. Mother Earth will freeze until spring. Everyone took from her everything she could give.
November: cloudy days
Description of the nature of late autumn November (I - II week)
Autumn is becoming more silent and sadder. The time has come for late autumn - the month of November. The sun began to appear very rarely. The cumulus clouds in the sky were replaced by a dull gray film. There was no warmth left at all. There is little snow, and if it does fall, the snow cover is unstable, which makes the weather seem especially cold. Dried grass is crushed by wet snow. A thin ice forms on the water. Either the rain and snow swirl like a whirlwind, or it just rains with a fine drizzle all day long, or even the sun will come out a little and immediately hide behind the rain line.
The trees are almost completely free of leaves; here and there a single leaf is still torn off by a strong wind and carried in a watery shroud. In winter, during cold weather, the bark of trees hardens, providing protection from icy wind, ice and snow. In the forest, in one place or another, you can meet the winter guest of the bullfinch. Along with bullfinches, flocks of redpolls and crossbills arrive in November. Forest animals are already completely ready for winter, dressed in winter coats, and here the wolf cubs have grown up in the wild forest and the fox runs from tree to tree looking for mice and badgers hidden in minks for the winter. A wild boar can be heard in the dry forest, cracking its branches as it makes its way to its flock. In winter, wild boars try to stay together, preparing a place for the night from a heap of old leaves. The forest has fallen asleep, but the animals do not sleep; a difficult test of a long winter lies ahead.
November in the folk calendar
“It’s not winter yet before Kazanskaya - it’s no longer autumn from Kazanskaya”
The month of November is harsh and cold in the absence of snow. There is occasional sunshine, but it hardly gives any warmth, and if the wind catches up, it hits you with arctic cold from head to toe. November begins in the folk calendar with the main date of November 4 - the feast of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. It’s not the weather right now to work; now we’ll have to sit at home all November and all winter, warming ourselves with the logs we’ve stored until it’s warm enough. On Kazanskaya the puddles freeze, become covered with thin ice, and then Dmitrov’s day has arrived - November 8th has arrived. They noted that there was still autumn left before Dmitrov's day. November 10 - Nenila-Lenyanitsa, flax was prepared for buckles. Nastasya the Shepherd fell on the 11th day of the month, they thanked the shepherds for protecting the sheep all year. Zinovey - November 12 is the holiday of tit birds; bullfinches, goldfinches and many other winter guests arrive in flocks on this day.
Autumn in Russian poetry
Late autumn evokes a sad, thoughtful mood. Sergei Yesenin often wrote poems about love, and even autumn nature, a time of some sadness and despondency, could not stop him. He continued to look for his love in the fall: “Today I am in love this evening.” But nevertheless, Yesenin always praised this time of year, using a variety of phrases and comparisons: “quiet joy”, “golden foliage”, “in pinkish water”.
Golden foliage swirled in the pinkish water of the pond, like a light flock of butterflies Flies breathlessly towards a star. Today I am in love with this evening, The yellowing valley is close to my heart. The boy-wind, up to his shoulders, stripped his hem on the birch tree.
Bunin, Balmont and Pleshcheev, in their poems about autumn, primarily emphasized sadness and boredom. They wrote about the changes that have occurred in nature: leaves are falling, birds are flying south, “the sun laughs less often.” No matter how differently Russian poets view autumn, one thing can be said with certainty: for all of them it was a special time, a time of reflection.
Read: Poems by Russian poets about autumn
G. Skrebitsky “Four Artists. Autumn"
For her work, the Autumn Artist took the brightest colors and first of all went into the forest with them. There she began to work on her painting. She covered the birches and maples with lemon yellow. And the aspen leaves turned red like ripe apples. The aspen tree became all bright red, all burning like fire.
Autumn wandered into a forest clearing. A hundred-year-old oak tree stands in the middle of a clearing, standing and shaking its thick leaves. Autumn thinks: “We need to dress the hero in bloody copper armor.” This is how I dressed the old man. He looks - and not far away, at the very edge of the clearing, thick, spreading linden trees have gathered in a circle, their branches lowered down. A heavy headdress made of gold brocade is most suitable for them.
Autumn decorated all the trees and even the bushes in its own way, in an autumnal way: some dressed in yellow, others in bright red. She only didn’t know how to decorate the pine and spruce trees. After all, they don’t have leaves on their branches, but needles, and you can’t paint them. Let them remain the same as they were in the summer. So the pines and spruce trees remained dark green in summer. And this made the forest even brighter, even more elegant in its colorful autumn attire.
Autumn went from the forest to the fields, to the meadows, removed the golden grain from the fields, and in the meadows swept the fragrant haystacks into stacks high, like towers. The fields and meadows became empty, even wider and more spacious. And schools of migratory birds stretched above them in the autumn sky: cranes, geese, ducks...
Games at home for children and more...
These short stories about autumn will be interesting for children of primary school age.
Autumn morning Mikhail Prishvin
Leaf after leaf falls from the linden tree onto the roof, some leaves like a parachute, some like a moth, some like a cog. Meanwhile, little by little the day opens its eyes, and the wind from the roof lifts all the leaves and they fly to the river somewhere along with migratory birds.
Here you stand on the shore, alone, put your palm to your heart, and with your soul, along with the birds and leaves, you fly somewhere.
And it feels so sad, and so good, and you whisper quietly:
- Fly, fly!
The day takes so long to wake up that by the time the sun comes out it's already lunchtime. We rejoice at a nice warm day, but we are no longer waiting for the flying cobwebs of Indian summer: everyone has scattered, and the cranes are about to fly, and there are geese, rooks - and it will all be over.
Bee and fly Konstantin Ushinsky
In late autumn it turned out to be a glorious day, the kind that is rare in spring: the lead clouds dissipated, the wind calmed down, the sun came out and looked so tenderly, as if it was saying goodbye to the faded plants. Summoned from the hives by the light and warmth, the shaggy bees, buzzing merrily, flew from grass to grass, not for honey (there was nowhere to get it), but just to have fun and spread their wings.
- How stupid you are with your fun! - the fly told them, which immediately sat on the grass, saddened and with its nose down. - Don’t you know that the sun is only for a minute and that, probably, today the wind, rain, cold will begin, and we will all have to perish.
- Zoom-zoom-zoom! Why disappear? — the cheerful bees answered the fly. - We'll have fun while the sun shines; and when bad weather comes, we’ll hide in our warm hive, where we’ve stored a lot of honey over the summer.
*****
But this story doesn’t fit into the short category at all, but I couldn’t help but share it. Read it with your children. It miraculously reflects all the signs and features of autumn in Rus'.
Autumn Konstantin Ushinsky
Already from July 9th, the day begins to gradually decrease and the night increases. On September 11th, day is equal to night again (according to the new style, the day of the autumnal equinox is September 23rd). This is the day of the autumnal equinox and the beginning of autumn. From this date, the night increases and by December 12 (according to the new style, the day of the winter solstice is December 22) it becomes three times longer than the day. At this time, the sun barely appears in the sky and is in a hurry to hide; at 9 o'clock in the morning it is still dark; At 3 o'clock after lunch you need to light the candles.
The clouds almost never leave the sky, and these are no longer beautiful summer clouds, piling up like silver mountains or running high across the sky like silvery lambs: the sky is increasingly covered with an even veil of leaden color. From the end of August the air begins to get colder. Freshness is noticeable especially in the mornings, and in September there are sometimes light frosts. Waking up in the morning, you see how the grass or the roof of the neighboring house has turned white. A little more and the puddles, which are quite everywhere in the fall, begin to freeze at night.
The fine autumn rains are completely different from the summer thunderstorms: they fall incessantly, and the ground no longer dries out quickly, as it did in the summer. The wind blows tirelessly, carrying the ripened seeds of trees and herbs far and giving the boy the pleasure of flying a paper kite high.
The leaves on the trees begin to turn yellow here and there at the end of August; in September you notice how on a birch tree, still green, completely yellow, golden branches appear here and there: as if the dead hand of autumn grabbed and crushed them in passing. The birch tree is the first to bloom, and it is the first to begin to turn yellow. Every day there are more and more yellow leaves. Another two or three days - and the trembling aspen stands all red, crimson, and golden. But the gusty autumn wind also tears away this last decoration: spinning light, dried leaves in the air, covering the wet ground with them.
The fields are gradually becoming empty, even the heaps of grain have already been brought in, and only tall haystacks, surrounded by fences, remain to winter in the meadows. The flowers have disappeared, and the yellowed, overripe grass, where it was left, bends to the ground and seems to be asking for snow. Only the winter leaves rise like smooth, green velvet. But these young, belated shoots are destined to die soon. But the roots of the bread will remain unharmed under the snow and in the spring they will again look out into the light of God with green stalks.
Everything stalls, becomes empty, darkens, loses the bright colors of summer and takes on the monotonous, dirty, gray look of autumn. At this time, nature looks like a tired, hard-working person who is overcome by sleep. A few more days will pass, and she, covered with a fluffy white blanket, will fall asleep for the whole winter.
The migrating birds, one after another, gather for a long journey. The swallows are the first to raise the alarm, and at the end of August they suddenly disappear; they feel the approach of autumn, and the early departure of these birds predicts an early winter. Then long lines of cranes, ducks and geese will stretch from north to south. With a cry, sometimes in a long chain, sometimes at an angle, with the front line in front, the summer guests fly away from us. Forests are thinning, becoming quiet and empty; only a heavy, wet crow croaks, sitting on a bare branch, and jackdaws rush around in flocks with desperate cries.
Now the trees are all bare, only its red clusters hang on the mountain ash, waiting for the frost. Empty, deaf, both in the fields and in the forests. The earth, blackened, dirty, soaked in rain, looks sad under the leaden sky: if only the snow would quickly cover its unpleasant nakedness. Snow also appears; but he cannot hold on for long and, sometimes remaining for several hours, disappears again.
The peasant's work significantly decreases in the fall; but still he does not remain idle. At the beginning of autumn it is necessary to plow and harrow and sow winter fields; then we need to transport grain from the fields to the barns; carts hidden under heavy sheaves creak along all the paths. Having brought the bread, you need to dry it in a barn and then thresh it. The blows of threshing flails can be heard on the threshing floors in the fall from early morning until late evening. Having threshed the grain, the peasant puts it in bags and hurries to the mill. If he is not threshing and not sitting at the mill, waiting in line, then, probably, with an ax in his hands, he is straightening something near his hut. The women soak and then crush the hemp, comb the flax and prepare themselves for the long winter evenings.
But still, in the fall there is much less work, compared to summer, and the peasant is in a hurry to have fun. There are many holidays in the fall: peasant weddings are always held at this time of year, when there is less to do and there is a lot of good stuff. Beer is brewed everywhere, and cheerful, partying crowds visit from hut to hut, from village to village. The little man worked hard over the summer: he needs to relax and have fun.
Autumn is also noticeable in cities. You can’t look outside without an umbrella, overcoat and galoshes. A fine, cold rain is drizzling from above; Water drips from wet shiny roofs. The foot slides on the wet stone. Puddles and dirt everywhere. The wet fences look sad. Jackdaws rush around in flocks and, pushing one another, sit on crosses. Windows are being washed everywhere and double glazing is being installed. The rooms become dark and deaf. There is no street noise; and in the evenings the wind whistles and howls in the chimneys, causing melancholy. But in the fall, theaters, concerts and meetings begin in capitals and big cities. Only all this goes on somewhat sluggishly, until the cheerful snow turns white on the streets and the sled road begins to fall. Then everything will wake up and move. A bright light will crackle in the stove, smoke will rise in columns from the chimneys, the snow will sparkle with diamond sparkles, a horse will run briskly, the sleigh will creak, the old man’s face will also flush: Russian winter life will roll merrily!
N. Sladkov “Autumn is on the threshold”
- Forest dwellers! - the wise Raven shouted one morning. — Autumn is at the threshold of the forest, is everyone ready for its arrival? Like an echo, voices came from the forest: “Ready, ready, ready...” “But we’ll check now!” - Raven croaked. - First of all, autumn will let the cold into the forest - what will you do? The animals responded: “We, squirrels, hares, foxes, will change into winter coats!” - We, badgers, raccoons, will hide in warm holes! - We, hedgehogs, bats, will fall into a deep sleep! The birds responded: “We, migratory birds, will fly away to warmer lands!” - We, settled ones, will put on down padded jackets! “Secondly,” the Raven shouts, “autumn will begin to rip off the leaves from the trees!” - Let him rip it off! - the birds responded. - The berries will be more visible! - Let him rip it off! - the animals responded. - It will be quieter in the forest! “The third thing,” the Raven continues, “autumn will click the last insects with frost!” The birds responded: “And we, blackbirds, will fall on the rowan tree!” - And we, woodpeckers, will begin to peel the cones! - And we, goldfinches, will get to the weeds! The animals responded: “And we will sleep more peacefully without mosquito flies!” “The fourth thing,” the Raven buzzes, “autumn will become boring!” He will catch up with dark clouds, let down tedious rains, and incite dreary winds. The day will be shortened, the sun will be hidden in your bosom! - Let him pester himself! - the birds and animals responded in unison. - You won’t keep us bored! What do we care about rain and winds when we are wearing fur coats and down jackets! Let's be well-fed - we won't get bored! The wise Raven wanted to ask something else, but he waved his wing and took off. He flies, and beneath him is a forest, multi-colored, motley - autumn. Autumn has already crossed the threshold. But it didn’t scare anyone at all.
Mikhail Prishvin “Late Autumn”
Autumn lasts like a narrow path with sharp turns. First frost, then rain, and suddenly snow, like in winter, a white blizzard with a howl, and again the sun, again warm and green. In the distance, at the very end, a birch tree stands with golden leaves: it remained frozen as it was, and the wind can no longer tear off the last leaves from it - everything that was possible was torn off.
The very end of autumn is when the rowan shrivels from frost and becomes, as they say, “sweet.” At this time, the latest autumn comes so close to the earliest spring that you can only recognize the difference between an autumn day and a spring day - in the fall you think: “I’ll survive this winter and rejoice in another spring.”
Then you think that everything in life must be like this: you have to exhaust yourself, work hard, and after that you can enjoy something. I remembered the fable “The Dragonfly and the Ant” and the ant’s stern speech: “You kept singing - that’s the point, so come and dance.” And in early spring, on exactly the same day, you expect joy without any merit; spring will come, you will come to life in it and fly like a dragonfly, without thinking about the ant at all.
Source
November: welcoming winter
Description of the nature of late autumn November (III - IV week)
Winter is getting closer and closer. The clouds are solid and gray, there is a foggy haze in the air, and in the morning the puddles are covered with crusts of ice. By the end of the month, the ponds freeze, covering them with completely flat ice. The average air temperature in October is 2-3 degrees below zero Celsius. Outwardly, November is a gray and sad month; only the last week of November can turn into white, freshly fallen snow, which will finally settle firmly on the soil and tree branches.
The water temperature is decreasing and many fish are already burrowing into the mud; catfish, crucian carp, and carp spend the winter in hibernation. During the winter, many floating fish remain in the rivers: perch, ruffe, and pike. By the end of the month, the thermometer has already dropped firmly below zero; all that remains is for snow to fall before winter begins.
And then, suddenly, as they say, snow falls on your head. In a matter of moments, it covers fields, river banks and trees with a white blanket. Everything is shrouded in snow, as if it is becoming warmer and happier from the white flakes slowly falling from the sky. Winter comes slowly and imprisons nature in icy shackles.
The second half of November in the folk calendar
"Fedor Studit - chills the earth"
The people greet winter with fun and holidays - November 14 is Kuzma-Demyan Day, also called Kuzminki. Now the rays of the sun are not able to warm. And from the very next day - November 15, Akundin Day, they began to work around the house. The girls wove, spun, and embroidered, and the men ground bread. By November 19th, winter froze up and bound the ponds and rivers with ice, but already on November 20th - Fedot, they talked about it - on this day the ice rises upon the ice.
Winter inhaled the cold, and suddenly, as if it had stumbled, took a step back - the Mikhailovsky thaw thundered on November 21. The snow that has managed to gain a foothold on the ground is melting, and the roads are dirty and slippery. But this is not for long, Matryona arrives on November 22 and winter shows its strength with might and main, frosts set in. November 25 Fyodor Studit. Those in the know said that if it rains on this day, then there will be a long thaw with mud snow underfoot, and if the snow lies firmly, then the winter will be long and snowy. By November 29, winter is already firmly on its feet, and the time for snowstorms and intensifying frosts is approaching. Winter enters Rus' on a sleigh.
Autumn in Russian painting
The slight sadness of late autumn can be seen in Alexander Stepanov’s landscape “Autumn”: colorless sky, bare branches, faded withered grass. The proximity of winter, loneliness and inevitability - these are the feelings that the work evokes.
(Painting by Efim Volkov “Swamp in Autumn”)
In Efim Volkov’s landscape “Swamp in Autumn” the sky is also an indeterminate gray color, but the mood is completely different. Maybe because there are also images of people and human habitation, which gives life to the picture, makes it life-affirming.
See: Paintings by Russian artists about autumn
